Clint was an asshole.

There were people who could verify that. Basically everyone who met Clint Barton would tell someone who hadn't what an asshole he was. Clint was fine with that and he was self-aware enough that he agreed with that wholeheartedly.

So while he knew and tried not be to people he barely knew or when it mattered, sometimes he just couldn't help himself.

People had told him his entire life that it would get him beat up, killed or alone at various points of his life, but to this day it had only got him beat up a couple of times and earned him the best team a man could hope to have.

The Avengers were a bunch of misfits that clashed, but they also fitted together seamlessly given a bit of time. Clint considered himself lucky on more than one occasion to be able to do what he loved and get paid for it while at the same time being able to spend time with his best friend and what slowly was developing to be a family he had never had.

But back to the asshole thing. He only ever associated it with bad things, like feeling the consequences of being an annoying little shit or playing a prank on someone in bruises littering his body or a cold shoulder from someone he cared about. He had never imagined it would help him find something this good in his life.

Let's start at the beginning.

Clint Barton's eighteenth birthday was spent on the run baking in the hot June sun not even noticing the Words branding themselves into his skin along his ribs on his right side. When he managed to catch a break holed away in a seedy motel and take a shower he was actually surprised to see the words. He hadn't even realized what day it was.

Thank you for having my back earlier.

In that moment he couldn't even imagine surviving by himself, much less looking after someone else. So he pushed it to the back of his mind and concentrated on putting some food in his stomach.

Years passed and he became an assassin, a bow for hire and then a SHIELD agent. For most of that time he was alone, so he accepted that his Words were most likely a fluke. He didn't have many opportunities to talk with others about Soul Words, so he didn't have much to go on, but a fluke was surely possible. With so many people on Earth they had be some who had Words that didn't mean anything.

When he was an agent, when Loki appeared and brought together the Avengers, he had already forgotten about it.

Clint was currently lying on the couch on the common floor of the Tower, staring at the ceiling and thinking about all the ways he could break into Tony's workshop undetected and mess it up in ways that would drive Tony insane.

The elevator doors opened, but Clint couldn't see who arrived from his position which also allowed him to stay hidden and triggered the next chain of events.

"You're lucky, Steve", an unfamiliar voice grumbled as two sets of feet made their way through the living room. "Not only did you recognize your soulmate right away, but you also have two."

"If it weren't for Pepper, Tony and I wouldn't have known we had each other's Words", Steve argued, but Clint could easily hear his smile. Well, that was definitely something he hadn't known. The good ol' Captain America was in a rare Soul Triad. Good for him.

"You're going to find yours, too."

"But I don't have another phrase to help me figure out who it is. I only have Come here often?. Do you know how many people were saying it on the streets?"

Clint snickered behind his hand, but it didn't muffle it enough. The two men stopped abruptly.

"Who's there?", Steve demanded in his Captain voice and Clint automatically sat up and propped himself up with his forearms on the back rest of the couch, giving them a bright grin.

The one whose voice he hadn't recognized was wearing a black hoodie with black cargo pants and combat boots with his black hair pulled back into a pony tail. Grey eyes were glaring out of a very handsome face and Clint winked at him.

"Come here often?" He knew it was a shitty thing to do, but Clint had already accepted that people would see him as an asshole no matter what, so better start early.

The glare intensified, which wow, Clint hadn't thought it was possible, before he practically growled and stomped off back towards the elevator, not waiting for Steve to catch up, before he was making the doors close.

Chuckling Clint was about to flop back onto the couch when he caught Steve's disapproving stare. It nearly made him feel bad.

"That was Bucky, my best friend, who was a prisoner of HYDRA for seventy years, before he managed to break out of the brainwashing they subjected him to. He will be an Avenger and he will live here. If you're not able to be civil I'm going to tell Jarvis to lock you out of every room you frequent more than two hours per week." And then he walked away and took the elevator, probably to wherever Bucky had run off to.

Laying back down on the couch Clint's mind was chaos.

Steve's best friend from the Forties. James Buchanan Barnes who had been presumed dead for how long Steve had been in the ice, but was actually working for HYDRA against his will. For seventy years.

Clint had only been under Loki's control for a couple of days, he couldn't imagine not being able to make his own decision for a lifetime.

Maybe he really should be nicer. The dude had suffered enough for all of them.

Fuck being nice.

Everyone was strewn around the living room a few hours later. Everyone except Thor who was visiting Jane.

This was the sort of Welcoming Party for Bucky and Clint had quickly decided it would be better named Let's praise Steve and make sure the Winter Soldier doesn't relapse and kill us all. Everyone was traipsing on egg shells around him instead of being awed by the mental strength Bucky had proving by enduring, surviving and still functioning at the end of it.

Natasha had kicked Clint's ass before and after he had been freed of Loki's control and it had been exactly what he needed. People being nice to him, making sure they weren't too close to him and acting like he was broken thing. It would have made him crazy.

But it was exactly what the team was doing right now with Bucky who awkwardly stood next to Steve with his hands in his pockets and trying to appear as non-threatening as possibly.

"So where is the food?"

Every head turned in his direction with various degrees of shock and exasperation on their faces.

"I was promised food, but all I can see is a bunch of supposedly superheroes treating a fellow superhero like a child", Clint quickly interrupted any protest that would have come and silence descended over the room.

Rolling his eyes Clint pushed away from the wall he was leaning against and wandered into the kitchen, but not before he threw a wink in Bucky's direction who looked like he was trying to control his expression, but a little bit of surprise still bled through.

The rest of the evening was filled with food and laughter. No one was thinking about what they were about to say more than usual and everyone seemed to be more relaxed. Clint felt proud to have accomplished that.

At one point Clint caught Bucky smile at something Natasha said and he had to bite down on his bottom lip to prevent a silly grin from forming. It was ridiculous. A handsome face shouldn't make Clint's chest so warm and his heart beat harder than normal.

To compensate and to bury himself in denial, he proceeded to continue being a dick to Bucky whenever he could. Making arm-jokes, using bad pick up lines whenever the opportunity arose and teasing him about anything he could get away with, without revealing that he was reveling in the eye-rolls, the barely hidden smiles and the complaining Bucky did to Steve when he knew Clint was listening.

Natasha teased him about his crush which he denied out loud, but couldn't deny to himself. Especially when he caught himself doing little things like ensuring Bucky's favorite candy was available in the kitchen or that he was left alone when he looked like he wasn't in the mood to deal with people.

A couple of month of pining and quiet in the superhero-business later, New York was invaded by Doom and his army of bots.

Clint had been dropped on a rooftop and was now picking off bots that were trying to get to his teammates in their blind spots. It was repetitive and Clint was dividing his attention between firing arrows and watching Bucky move through the streets, crushing the robots with his metal hand and twisting through the air like he weighed nothing. It caused Clint's mouth to dry out completely. He always had a bit of a competency kink.

Only because he was watching that closely, he noticed the bot creeping along the outskirts, half hidden behind cars, an ominous red light blinking at its center.

Clint quickly drew an explosive arrow and took aim, but Bucky was still positioned so that he couldn't take the shot without hurting him.

"Steve, Bucky needs your Shield in five seconds." He hoped it would be enough. Panic started to settle low in his stomach, but he tried to ignore it. Doubts and fears that Bucky wouldn't make it were not helpful.

A blue, red and white streak shot through the air and landed in Bucky's hand.

"Behind you. Duck." Clint let his arrow fly just as Bucky followed his directions and a second before an explosion tore into the street and threw a car, pieces of road and a lamppost into the air.

Clint suppressed his sigh of relief and concentrated on helping out his other team mates.

Another hour and they had rounded up all the remaining bots. Tony was tearing up the robots verbally and physically while Steve was just looking on smiling and the others were starting on cleaning up. Clint was avoiding that particular task by collecting any arrows he could find from around the block. When he came close to where the others were gathered Bucky looked up and then jogged over.

Clint smirked at him while hoping it would hide the flush to his cheeks and the quickening of his heart beat.

"Thank you for having my back earlier."

Clint's smirk vanished and it felt like the whole world stopped spinning for a second. It barely registered that all the arrows in his hands fell out of his slack fingers and clattered to the ground.

A frown appeared on Bucky's face. "You okay?"

"How the fuck did you not talk to me before?" Clint could have hit himself. That was his reaction to hearing his Soul Words? He was such an idiot.

"What?" Bucky crossed his arms over his chest, defensiveness written in every line of his body.

"That! That was the first sentence you said to me. You took three months!" Then he realized that his own first sentence to Bucky had been a joke and his inner asshole rearing his head. And then he had fallen in love with his Soul Mate without ever knowing it was his Soul Mate and wasn't that the most cliché thing that could happen.

"I have said stuff to you before."

"Name one", Clint challenged, crossing his own arms across his chest.

Bucky opened his mouth, but then stopped and closed it again, frowning more deeply.

"Exactly." Triumph laced his voice.

"What does it even matter?", Bucky asked exasperated and turned away a bit, indicating that he was done with this conversation.

"I said your Words three month ago, when you first came into the Tower." Clint quickly continued as Bucky tried to interrupt him. "And you never said anything back to me. Just to the others, but that sentence, about me having your back..." It sounded silly now that he was saying it out loud. It could be someone else, but damn, Clint was hoping the Words along his ribs matched Bucky's handwriting.

Understanding dawned on Bucky's face and something else flicked over his features which Clint interpreted as hope. It gave him enough confidence to strip off his quiver and bow to put them in Bucky's hands to be able to strip off his shirt more easily.

Bucky's eyes went wide when the weapon was placed in his hands, but they widened even further when he saw the black Words on Clint's skin. The arrows rattled as Bucky's hands started to shake and the Soldier swallowed hard, while he aborted a step forward.

"I mean, it doesn't have to mean anything, right? Soul Words can be platonic." Even if it meant letting his heart be crushed into a thousand pieces.

"Yeah." Bucky swallowed again, before nodding. "Yeah, of course. Totally platonic."

"Don't be an idiot", was audible from the side suddenly. They looked there at the same time to see the whole team gathered watching them.

"You were both crushing on each other for ages", Natasha told them in a matter-of-fact tone.

"The Sexual Tension was killing us", Sam chimed in, while the other's were nodding in agreement.

"I was just about to tell Jarvis to lock you two in a room together until you either admit your feelings or just get it out of your system." Tony placed a hand on his chest. "I'm so happy, I think I need to throw a party."

And then everyone was bickering with each other, but Clint ignored them and turned back to Bucky who was looking at the Words along Clint's ribs again.

"It's my handwriting", Bucky whispered absentmindedly and his fingers twitched.

"I would be okay with us not being platonic. Like very okay."

Bucky looked up quickly. Question written clearly across his face and Clint smiled slightly.

"Let's just say that I have a shitty way of showing people I care about them." It cost his last shred of confidence to put himself out there.

Cursing Bucky let the bow and quiver fall to the ground, in favor of grabbed Clint's shoulders and pulling him into a kiss. The archer couldn't even be mad about the lack of proper care of his equipment as he buried his fingers into Bucky's loose hair to have something to hold onto, as the kiss mutated from a harmless press of lips into something deeper and passionate. Clint's whole body felt like it was on fire and he didn't even care that everyone was watching and a moan fell out of his mouth so easily.

"I didn't say anything at first, because I didn't like you, but then I realized you were actually treating me like I was anybody else and I pretty much fell for you on the spot. I was afraid you would find your Soul Mate, because nothing I had said to you caused any kind of reaction. Apparently I was too much of an idiot to even notice that I didn't say anything to you directly", Bucky whispered into the space between them as they came up for air.

Clint smiled and leaned forward for another kiss. "You still owe me an apology for stealing my pop tarts a week ago."

Rolling his eyes Bucky shook his head. "I did not steal them."

"Whatever you say." Smirking Clint let Bucky go and pulled his shirt back on, before draping his quiver and bow over his bag again.

They took another second to smile at each other stupidly, before going to the others and letting the teasing begin.

Clint wouldn't have it any other way.

End!